ManyMarvel Snapplayers logged into the app on the evening of July 11, 2025, only to be met with a message stating that the app had been banned in the United States. Players in the US were told they would beunable to log intoMarvel Snapor download it from their devices' app storesfor the duration of the ban. While the related TikTok ban was well-covered and generally expected, theMarvel Snapban was much more of a surprise. The message read almost exactly like a truncated version of the TikTok ban notification, stating that the app had been banned and was unavailable in the US.
But while TikTok came back online the afternoon of the following day,Marvel Snapwas down for more than a full 24 hours. The unexpected ban caused a ripple effect throughout the game’s community and development team, and may have already led to changes to the collectible card game. Here’s what really happened with theMarvel Snapban, and what to expect going forward.
Why Marvel Snap Was Down For More Than A Day
The Marvel Snap Ban Explained
Marvel Snapand TikTok were both banned as part of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act(PAFACA). Passed by Congress in April 2024, PAFACA makes it illegal for certain mobile apps to be distributed, maintained, or hosted in the United States if the President determines them to be a national security risk owned and operated by a “foreign adversary” of the United States, unless the app’s parent company successfully divests from that “adversary.” The only company mentioned by name in the bill isByteDance Ltd. - the Chinese parent company of both TikTok and NuVerse, the publisher ofMarvel Snap.
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In short,Marvel Snapwent offline due to an act of Congress that declared it a national security risk, accusing it of collecting data for the Chinese government - an allegation TikTok has denied. Still,this led to the brief banning of several apps owned or operated by ByteDance in the US, including TikTok,Marvel Snap, the social media site Lemon8, and the editing software CapCut.
ByteDance’s apps slowly began coming back online in the ensuing 24 hours, after President-elect Donald Trump publicly declared he’d grant ByteDance a 90-day extension to its period of divestiture. However, while TikTok’s service was fully restored by the following afternoon,Marvel Snaptook a little longer to come back online -probably because its banning was completely unexpected to its US-based development team.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter),Second Dinner(the development studio that makesMarvel Snap) admitted that"This outage is a surprise to us and wasn’t planned,“but ensured players that it wouldn’t be permanent. By the evening of January 20,Marvel Snapwas indeed back up and running in the United States, but download availability and in-app purchases remained unavailable even longer - at the time of writing,Marvel Snapwas still absent from Google Play and the Apple App Store in the US. Either way, the damage was already done.
How The TikTok Ban Affected Marvel Snap
Missed Rewards & Login Bonuses
Like most mobile games of its type,Marvel Snapfeatures timed events. Its most recent event is the Dark Avengers Season Pass, which allows players to claim items like cards, cosmetics, and currency if they complete certain challenges within a limited amount of time. Progressing in the Season Pass requires commitment, including daily or almost-daily logins. Players may also have invested time in time-limited missions that expired during the ban.Many found themselves set back in the Season Pass by the sudden outage, and may miss out on certain higher-tier rewards by the end of the season.
Some players do pay to access a premium version of the Season Pass, which offers more and better rewards to those who purchase it.
In addition,Marvel Snaphas a daily login bonus program, in which players can obtain rewards simply by opening the game. These rewards increase in value the more days they use the app consecutively; i.e., the longer the streak, the bigger the gift.The sudden ban inevitably cut off many players' streaks, resetting them to day one of the daily login bonuses and resetting their progress towards the higher-tier rewards.
Although no compensation has been offered to players affected by the ban yet,Second Dinnersays in a post on X that it’s working on a solution.Players may be offered some sort of consolation prize in exchange for content and rewards missed during the outage - keepan eye on Second Dinner’s social media pages for more details as they come.
What Marvel Snap Is Doing To Fix The Problem
Second Dinner’s Search For A New Publisher
In the wake of the outage, the developers ofMarvel Snaphave decided to take steps to prevent future outages. In a further post on X,Second Dinnersays thatMarvel Snapis currently searching for a new publisherto replace the ByteDance-owned NuVerse, and working on ways to provide more of its own services in-house. Ideally, this would preventMarvel Snapfrom being subject to further bans if PAFACA is enforced against ByteDance again after the 90-day extension.
And that’s where Second Dinner left things with theMarvel Snapban. Of course, its search for a new publisher is still in its early days - expect further updates later down the line as that progresses. For now, players can take comfort in knowing thatMarvel Snapis playable in the US once again, should be back up on app stores soon, and its developers are taking steps to ensure it won’t be banned under PAFACA again.
Sources: Second Dinner/X (1,2,3)
Marvel SNAP
Marvel brings its multiversal madness to the digital collectible card game scene with Marvel SNAP, a 1v1 multiplayer Digital TCG on iOS, Android, and PC. In Marvel Snap, players will assemble teams of their favorite heroes and villains as they battle against other players in three-minute games in this high-speed card battler.
